By Danny Efland

As many of you know by now the proposed Car of Tomorrow (COT) for the NASCAR Nationwide Series was tested for the first time on Monday and Tuesday (Sept. 8 & 9) on the Richmond International Raceway.

All four manufacturers had representative cars at the tests. Johnny Davis Motorsports, (JDM), my car owner had it's new car there by invitation. In order to clarify some of the mis-information out there, I would like to explain.

JDM is a very small, independent Nationwide Team with an owner who has been part of the Nationwide scene since close to it's beginnings. The team is currently not sponsored which means I, as the current driver, must run in a very conservative manner. Even so it is the biggest opportunity of my career and my life long ambition to be a NASCAR driver.

Early on Johnny Davis thought that the COT offered the chance for the smaller teams to gain ground by the equalization on such things as aerodynamics. No longer would it require a special car for almost every track. Accordingly, he was eager to participate in the COT program.

Contrary to some rumors, his COT is an "in house" effort. The car was not provided by any other team. Ortec (previously Laughlin) provided the chassis as they do for most of the current JDM cars. Ortec is in the business of building chassis for many of the independent teams that do not fabricate them in house. The body was installed by a company that does this for the independents. Once the frame and body arrived, the entire car was built at JDM shops in Gaffney, South Carolina by JDM's 7 person crew that includes me! All of this in 2 weeks while continuing our regular racing. - many 18 hour days!

The car has one of our regular motors and at the last minute the car was 'primed' in our spray paint room. Admittedly it had no bondo and paint but we did what we could.

We came back to the shop after the rain delay at Richmond this past weekend, finished up the car and took it back with us on Sunday.

Monday morning after the press introductions for the various cars, we went to work on the final set up. As is the case with most small teams we gain much needed help from the big teams. That help is greatly appreciated. It was the afternoon session before the car actually got on the track. Morgan Shepherd did the first testing and after several stops to work out bugs, turned very competitive laps. He was actually faster than some of the big teams.

Our development was by 'driver input' while the big teams had car loads of engineers with lap-top computers and telemetry. Our engineering staff consisted of one sent by Ortec and me, with my one year of engineering school! (I am taking this semester off to realize my dream - to drive in NASCAR races).

At the end of Monday it was my turn! After just a few laps, on used tires, I was faster than I had been all weekend in my Nationwide car and within one tenth of Morgan's time. The car is very predictable and settles into the track better than I would have ever believed. Tuesday was all my turn at the wheel.

Right from the start on Tuesday morning the car was comfortable and fast. We kept trying things and ran until about 1 pm when the rain started. On used tires I got down to within two tenths of the fastest we clocked anyone and the fastest our car had run so we are very happy and can not wait until the next scheduled test for these cars which will be on a super speedway.

Danny Efland